


Take What's Broken (Make It Whole)

by QuickSilverFox3



Series: Mag7 Summer Swagbag Challenge [6]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Communication, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Happy Ending, M/M, Past Abuse, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:02:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24704251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuickSilverFox3/pseuds/QuickSilverFox3
Summary: “No. You cross that line and we’re done.”Faraday paused, eyes — aching with every blink, a dull thrum reverberating through his head — slowly moving from the screen to stare at Vasquez. The other man refused to meet his gaze, jaw clenched tight enough that Faraday winced in sympathy, nails rasping over his stubble.-Vasquez and Faraday play Animal Crossing, and talk.
Relationships: Joshua Faraday/Vasquez
Series: Mag7 Summer Swagbag Challenge [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1789006
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32
Collections: Mag7 Summer Swagbag Challenge





	Take What's Broken (Make It Whole)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Mag7 Summer Swagbag Challenge June - Sentence prompt: “No. You cross that line and we’re done.”
> 
> Plus, no word of a lie, my sister spent half an hour trying to get her first villager's houses to line up. The struggle is real

“No. You cross that line and we’re done.”

Faraday paused, eyes — aching with every blink, a dull thrum reverberating through his head — slowly moving from the screen to stare at Vasquez. The other man refused to meet his gaze, jaw clenched tight enough that Faraday winced in sympathy, nails rasping over his stubble.

“But babe—”

“No.”

Faraday sighed, slowly letting his muscles relax — everything hurt, restless energy coiling beneath his skin like trapped lightning, one leg beginning to bounce now that his concentration was broken — and slipped further down the couch. His new position wasn’t comfortable: one leg bent and twisted to remain propped up on the opposite chair, wire trailing over his thigh; the other now raised and bent, knee blocking out his view of Vasquez’s screen; his back concertinaed and curled protectively. 

He didn’t have long to pull off his master plan — if the worry threatening to drown him would let him concentrate for just a few minutes now before the dark tide drowned him.

Faraday first met Vasqeuz at a bar — Joshua’s entire time at university was spent hopping from bar to bar in an endless stream of fruity flavoured drinks that burned his throat, and the comforting hazy darkness. He couldn’t remember what he first said to Vasquez — the alcohol had it’s good points even as it chased away good memories with the bad — but he had taken the punch to the jaw ‘surprisingly well.’ 

It had been a memorable first meeting — for Vasqeuz at least. Faraday could only remember the ground swaying beneath him, stomach rolling like he was on the deck of a ship, stars bright and spiralling above them. He woke the next morning, throat dry and furred, head pulsing with agonising waves of pain; and Vasquez curled up on the sofa across the room from him, arm thrown across his face to block out the light and thin blanket wrapped tightly around his chest against the chill of the early morning. 

“I’m sorry,” Vasquez offered, drawing Faraday back into the present, an olive branch in the deliberate softness of his words, shoulder cracking with an eye watering pop as he stretched to trail a single fingertip down Faraday’s leg.

“Can we— Can you—”

Faraday stopped, drumming a frantic tempo against his curled knuckles, heart lodged in his throat. The words were circling round his chest like sharks scenting blood in the water; but he had been in this situation countless times before. He knew how it would end; how it would always end. 

He knew he loved Vasquez. Faraday had known it since the (technical) second day of their friendship when Vasquez, bleary eyed from sleep and eyes narrowed against the piercing sunlight, had grinned and offered to get them both a Chinese to celebrate the beginning of a beautiful friendship, forged in blood and cheap drinks. He even paid for it. A simple act of kindness that Vasquez wouldn’t think anything of — Faraday was convinced Vasquez was a god of the lost and lonely made flesh and, although Vasquez didn’t agree with him, the other man never stopped Faraday from worshiping at his altar with his lips and teeth. But that one act broke Faraday as if he was made from fresh spun glass, Vasquez’s kindness piercing his heart in a way nothing else had since his mother died and Faraday pledged himself to the bottle.

“Guero?”

Vasquez’s voice was soft. Faraday could see hesitant movement out of the corner of his eye, hear the shift as Vasquez sat up.

“Can you not joke about breaking up?” Faraday spat the words out as if they would burn him, a rapid clatter of machine gun fire in his voice.

Vasquez shifted closer, and Faraday flinched away, hating every moment, just wanting it to end, bile hot and acidic in his throat—

“Okay. Lo siento.”

Faraday blinked, every muscle tense waiting for a slap, waiting for cruel mocking laughter. The memories of the end of his last relationship — her nails leaving stinging scratches across his face, her mouth painted blood red and twisted into a snarl as he slipped out of the door, desperate to start forgetting — played out behind his eyes, but the sting of guilt was absent, leaving him feeling hollow, off balance.

“Is that—” Faraday paused, mouth twisting as he fought to regroup his scattered thoughts, “Is that it?”

“Si,” Vasquez shrugged, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. “I didn’t know, and now I do. I won’t joke about it again.”

Faraday turned that thought around and around in his mind like a loose stone. He couldn’t pick it apart now — brain too full of bright colours and intricate plans, heart too full with overwhelming love for Vasquez. Faraday always fell in love too fast, too quick, would burn out one day; but this felt like the one. 

Drawing in a deep breath, and then another, he turned back to the game still loosely held in his hands, cursor flying across the screen.

“House here, do you think, my beloved architect?” Vasquez asked after a few minutes spent nudging his character minutely up and down, curses bottled up in his chest as he tried to get the house level.

“Why are you moving the houses again? But yeah.”

“Espera y verás, guero.”

Vasquez laughed as Faraday threw a rude hand gesture his way, tongue clamped between his teeth as he continued to move buildings around once more, Faraday absorbed in putting the finishing touches on his masterpiece.

“Here.”

Faraday started, flashes of pain shooting up his hip reminding him of his bad leg — more metal and pins than flesh, and yet he still forgot about it. Wincing with pain, tears prickling at the corners of his eyes, he turned to see Vasqeuz, beautiful and sillohueted by the setting sun, bright and brilliant grin on his face. 

“I made space for your weird obession with Jeff Goldblum,” Vasquez said, unable to stop his nose from wrinkling in fond distaste, gesturing the open expanse — prime real estate, Faraday couldn’t help but think, next to shops and the museum, all carefully planned and colour coordinated — for Faraday’s intricate meme rendering in Vasquez’s perfectly planned town.

Faraday grinned, biting back the groan of pain as he pushed himself up and over, kissing Vasquez as hard as he could, pouring everything he couldn’t yet say into that single action. Vasquez’s hands cupped his cheeks, a silent prayer in the way his thumbs rubbed across Faraday’s cheekbones, tracing the freckles like a puzzle made just for him.

**Author's Note:**

> [ The picture in question](https://imgur.com/gallery/29JWS4J)
> 
> [ My Tumblr!](https://inkformyblood.tumblr.com) Requests are always welcome!


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